Real-pod deployment launcher for the original VDB + octopus 4-head wiring:
VPX_COCKPIT borderless head windows (radar/win0 800,0; 3-color MFD/win4 1440,0;
2-color MFD/win3 2080,0; all 640x480) + the GL bridge as the main out-the-window
view (0,0, 800x600 via new BRIDGE_W/BRIDGE_H in live_bridge.py). Editable RECTS
at the top of the script for other rigs.
focus_dosbox.ps1 restores the deployment window state: renderer -> always-on-top
(WS_EX_TOPMOST, game view never covered) + DOSBox-X -> 10,10 with foreground
focus (keeps the emu thread at foreground priority so the RIO doesn't starve).
Coexist cleanly: topmost renderer stays above the focused-but-non-topmost DOSBox.
pod_deploy calls it last; re-run anytime the stack is disturbed. LAUNCH.md
documents both.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The main loop rendered EVERY draw_scene in arrival order, so any render
slowdown played the mission slower than real time and the view drifted
seconds behind the game (user: "renderer fell way out of sync"); the
backpressure hides in the socket, so backlog= stayed 0. Now each pass
slices all complete records, applies every state record in order, and
presents only the newest frame; superseded presents are counted in the
new skipped= report field. Live verdict over a full mission:
frames=10169 skipped=3 backlog=0B -- locked to the wire.
Also from the tuner session: seat trim granularity 0.1 (0.5 was too
jumpy) and a HUD size trim (vrview_gl u_scale + VRVIEW_HUDSCALE env,
live +/- keys) -- tuners stay enabled for pilot feedback; seat trim
turns out to be per-mech (Mad Cat vs Thor want different values).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
- fp_cam works before the first vehicle articulation (a freshly dropped
mech sends no 0x1f until it moves; bailing out left the raw chain
convention showing the inside of the mech at every drop)
- The FLYK stand-in +90-deg yaw correction no longer applies to munga
content (it yawed the player's own mech -- and every animated model --
90 degrees: "looking through the right shoulder")
- With fog on, the clear colour saturates to the fog colour (background
at infinite distance); the pre-drop hold is FULLY black, as period
pilots confirm
- net_full.conf: COM2 plasma passthrough + setenv plasma flag
Networked console session verified live: black hold at ready, flash +
fade on console launch, drop-bay doors present, own mech visible, and
the full death sequence captured on the wire (fade-to-black, escape-pod
interior via near-fog exemption, world reload, white flash, blue-violet
respawn fade = the blue swirly's home).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The stale-aim saga, root-caused live with the operator:
- The device raycast walked only lod[0] of each object; BT content is
authored ADDITIVE_LODS (arena wall = posts lod + panel lod), so the
aim ray flew BETWEEN the skeleton pieces of whatever was targeted --
94% miss rate (pick stats now log this).
- Misses fell back to a plain frame ack carrying no sect data, so the
game kept a seconds-old target: "aim updates every few seconds",
stationary shots stale. The pick is now answered EVERY armed frame;
a miss is a valid all-zero reply that clears targetEntity (aiming at
open sky un-targets -- authentic misfire, not stale fire).
- Raycast walks ALL lod children; own-articulation exclusion via the
CAM backchannel 7th field (vehicle root DCS) stops mid-volley picks
of the player's own muzzle flash / arms.
Renderer: same ADDITIVE_LODS fix -- when every LOD switch window is
the degenerate (0,1e9) fallback, draw the union of all lods. The
arena wall ring (user-confirmed live) went from floating post slivers
to the full textured wall. Bridge reports its wire backlog.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Renderer (dpl3-revive/patha):
- Instance visibility honored at DRAW time (stored word 4 = live
dpl_SetInstanceVisibility field): laser beams (4-frame pulses) and
missile models now render; cache tags w3 0/1 instances 'gated'
- PSFX world bursts (dcs=0 muzzle/impact/explosion) rendered; psfx
storage list-based so one-shot bursts stop collapsing onto one key
- fix_degenerate applied to INSTANCE chains (was camera-only): the
beam chain rides four rank-2 rig DCSs; composed rank-2 drew beams
away from the guns. Offline f1635 now shows both arm beams
converging on the aim point
- First-person canopy cull: the always-armed cockpit model at the
head drew as a vertical line down screen center (user-confirmed
fixed live)
Device (vpx-device/vpxlog.cpp):
- CAM backchannel on the fifosock: bridge streams its validated
camera (+ vehicle root DCS); raycast_pick aims along the player's
real look instead of the static view-node pose, which had locked
every missile/beam onto one fixed wrong world point
- raycast_pick skips hidden-until-armed instances and the player's
own articulation subtree: picking own beams created a target
feedback loop, picking own missiles retargeted salvos mid-flight,
and a picked missile's deleted DCS froze the game (arena2 crash)
Sound (vpx-device/vweawe.cpp): stereo-linked peak limiter replaces
the hard output clamp (the "generator out" crackle); VWE_AWE_LOG
reports pre-limit peaks + duck counts, enabled in launch_pod.ps1.
Missile-fire crackle persists: per-voice EMU8000 clamp suspected.
Eggs/confs: TESTAR2.EGG + gauge_arena2_sound.conf (map=arena2 city
variant); cavern.egg (console-era reference); plasma display on COM2
in the gauge confs; gauge_arena_net_sound.conf (slirp net stack).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
vpx-device/vpxlog.cpp -- WEAPONS FIRE. The game's fire gate is
targetReticle.targetEntity (mech+0x388), filled every frame by a Division-board
reticle pick (dpl_RapidSectPixel) our HLE never answered, so every shot
misfired. The device now casts the camera centre ray against the live scene
(Moller-Trumbore) and returns the full hit -- instance + DCS + geogroup +
geometry -- piggybacked on the draw_scene reply; terrain is a valid target so
you can fire and miss. Sending geogroup=0 was hanging the game (GetAppSpecific
on a null); returning the real geogroup fixed it. Pick is default-on with a
single VPX_NO_PICK escape hatch. Also swaps the upper-left/right MFD explode
windows (screen location only -- decode untouched, real cause TBD on a pod).
dpl3-revive/patha/vrview.py -- HAT-GLANCE fix at the source. One cockpit DCS
(0xa2c) flushes a rank-2 rotation (shifted body -> wrong read window) that
collapsed the camera chain to rank 2 and smeared the head glance onto the wrong
axis (left/right hat read as pitch). chain_matrix(fix_degenerate) treats a
degenerate chain DCS as identity: preserves the look exactly and keeps stick-Y
torso pitch working (an earlier bridge-level yaw/pitch swap broke stick-Y and
was reverted). User-verified live: hat all 4 dirs + stick-Y both correct.
render-bridge/launch_pod.ps1 -- launch the bridge with pyw (windowless) so no
console window parks over the cockpit displays (Start-Process ignores
-WindowStyle once stdout/stderr are redirected).
render-bridge/live_bridge.py -- surface bridge render errors, flush the status
line; reverted glance-swap note.
Also vendored HUD (dpl2d) renderer work in vrboard/vrview_gl and RENDERER-COLLAB
/ RIO notes.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
- emulator/render-bridge/: the pod->Dave's-renderer live bridge (rescued
from session scratchpad): live_bridge.py (first-person cam from the 0x1f
pose, arrow-key eye-height trim), fp/chase offline renders, fifobridge,
diagnostics, gauge_arena[_sound].conf, and launch_pod.ps1 (one-command
pod+bridge restart: pentapus VPX_EXPLODE + AWE32 sound + GL bridge).
- _backend.py: renderer selection -- vrview_gl.GLRenderer (moderngl) by
default, VRVIEW_SOFT=1 for the software reference; backend-agnostic
frame save via last_frame.
- GPU backend runs on side-by-side CPython 3.13 (moderngl/glcontext cp313
wheels; no MSVC needed): 63fps headless / 60.7 windowed vs 21fps software
on the same scene, and the GL path also draws the vertex-alpha cloud dome.
- vrview.py: VRVIEW_GAMMA env selects DAC gamma (1.25 live-renderer legacy
vs 1.7 per the original GAMMA.C) for A/B against the real pod.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
CydandClaude Fable 5